you make my heart feel like it's summer
by cyclothimic
Summary: Sam had four smiles: the smile that she had for other people, the smile that she had for her loved ones, the smile that she had for Ruby, and the smile she had for Alex. And Alex always felt more spoiled than ever whenever Sam flashed her that smile. / Alex was addicted to it. l or the habits that Sam has to show Alex that she loves her


**i miss sam arias so much. i miss her heart eyes with alex. can odette annable stop being such a waspy mom and come back to save my life? WE COULD HAVE HAD IT ALL WITH AGENTREIGN**

**now, read, ponder, and enjoy!**

* * *

_Our two hearts will make it easy;_

_Joining up the pieces,_

_Together making life._

_-Kodaline, The One_

* * *

In the beginning, Alex had thought it was just a habit.

Like the possibility that Sam did not like drinking coffee dredges or drain the cup until she could see the grounds. After all, Alex might have saved Sam's life and practically adopted Ruby as her own and everyone had mistaken them for a couple even though they were most certainly not – to Alex's regret – it was likely that Alex still didn't know every one of Sam's quirks.

But then Alex started occupying the guestroom in the Arias household whenever game nights were held there – she deliberately ignored Lena's knowing look and annoying smirk each night she stayed back as everyone made their departure – and she started noticing stuff.

Stuff like how Sam refused to wear technicolor to bed, and her wardrobe of sleepwear consisted of grey, white, black, and two very deep browns. Stuff like how Sam had a king-sized bed but chose to sleep on the right side, even though she'd end up star-fishing all over the bed in the morning – _this, _Alex only found out because Sam somehow didn't wake up and Ruby had to go to school; she ended up letting the woman sleep in and sending Ruby to school herself instead. Stuff like how Sam woke up looking like an absolute angel, hair on fleek and freckles printed all over her cheeks, and Alex remembered the last time she had been so engrossed was the morning after the first time she slept with Maggie. Stuff like how surprising it was to find that Sam was _not _a morning person, and her daughter usually woke up before her, which was made even better now that the brunette had discovered that she had superpowers.

Stuff like how Sam never failed to finish an entire cup of coffee that Alex made her, right down to the grounds where even a witch would be impressed, _but _if she got it from a café or if someone else like Lena made it for her, she just _refused _to finish it.

This was yet another morning, and Alex had stayed over enough times to understand how the goddamn coffee machine worked. Honestly, it was the most complicated mechanism _ever_, and Alex literally just wanted some caffeine to start her day, for the love of god.

"Fuck you, Lena Luthor," she had cursed under her breath the first time she had tried to use it and ended up wasting probably five scoops of Sam's coffee powder.

By the time Alex had prepared the grilled cheese sandwiches for all three of them, poured two cups of coffee for the adults, and a glass of milk for the teenager, Ruby was already seated down at the island and munching on her breakfast, and Sam had only made her appearance as she came down the stairs rubbing her eyes. Alex, undoubtedly and on a timely manner, felt her heart stutter at the sight.

Hair on fleek, freckles all over, eyes half open as the CFO valiantly blinked away the sleepiness – an absolute angel.

"Morning," she managed.

Sam mumbled an incoherent reply, placed a long kiss on her daughter's head, and sat down next to Ruby. They set on eating their breakfasts in quiet, with Ruby scrolling on her Twitter feed, Sam doing the morning crossword, and Alex reading the newspaper. Once they had finished, Ruby loaded the dishes into the dishwasher, but Alex didn't fail to notice the _very _empty cup sitting in front of Sam before Ruby had whisked it away.

When Ruby rushed upstairs to grab her school bag, Alex couldn't help but ask, "Why do you always finish the coffee I make you? But not those you get at cafés or when someone else makes it?"

Sam looked up from the crossword and then shrugged, absentmindedly replying, "It just tastes better when you make it." Then she turned back to her crossword trying to figure out what went with 'Korean export'.

Meanwhile, Alex was just sitting there, deaf to Ruby's bumbling steps down the stairs, gaping at the oblivious woman across from her, thinking about all the empty cups for the past three months since she started saying over the guestroom.

* * *

She didn't know when it started or how it started. Alex was a very busy person and her phone never seemed to stop buzzing, okay, she could hardly keep track of her emails, let alone thirty calls a day.

But apparently, it was a thing now. It was very much a thing, and it was a thing that Alex had started looking forward to everyday, and this thing had become…a _thing _in Alex's routine. So much so that the usually oblivious and innocent Kara even took notice, because whenever Alex's phone buzzed around the blonde with that certain caller ID flashing on the screen, Kara would just raise her brows and look at her sister very pointedly.

And Alex would just roll her eyes at her sister and walk away with the phone to her ear, a natural smile taking over her face – she couldn't control the way her face moved whenever it came to Samantha Arias, after all.

"Hey, Sam."

Because yes, Sam calling her everyday at work was a thing now. And Alex wouldn't want it any other way. It was always after lunchtime, and if either of them was too busy, Alex would either make up for it by calling her later in the day or Sam would show up at her apartment with a bottle of red wine and a whole lot of stories to tell her about her workday.

And life at the DEO was always hectic. Alex was always out on the field trying to curb some aliens or another, or she'd be back on base interrogating some aliens or another, or she'd be in her laboratory attempting to figure some alien's DNA or another, or she'd be doing the worst of it all: paperwork. So she needed some bit of calm, a semblance of normalcy, just something to remind her that there was a world outside of the very bizarre job she had.

Sam, even though she was a Kryptonian – the strongest on Earth, might she add – managed to do that. She called Alex; she asked Alex whether she'd eaten; she'd tell Alex about the crazy shit or just the most benign stuff that she did or occurred to her; and Alex could feel it seeping – the outside world, the world where she had friends and there was a kid who loved her and a woman who didn't seem to care that she was the Director of the DEO.

So, yes, these daily phone calls – they were very much a thing; a thing that Alex appreciated and loved and wouldn't want to lose. And if Kara wanted to be judgmental about it, well, Alex already had a mirror prepared. It wasn't as if her sister didn't make it a habit to pass by the L-Corp building every time she was patrolling, dropping off croissants and some such.

* * *

It was about three years after she had joined the DEO and one year after J'onn had allowed her to become part of operations, a pretty nasty mission came about. Well, actually, at first glance, the mission seemed rather standard – mild and unobtrusive, point and threaten, in and out.

Needless to say, everything went to shit pretty soon and pretty unexpectedly. And they aimed their rifles and they tried to steer the attention from the civilians and they spent almost thirty minutes trying to apprehend a harmful alien within a tiny suburban house. In the process, Alex took a fun ride down the stairs, resulting in a PCL injury that never ceased to go away.

No one knew about it – not even Kara or Maggie. She never bothered to tell them, because she had gotten good at hiding it from them. Plus, she lived in an apartment, so there was no stairs, therefore at least she could be comfortable in her own home if it ever got too much. There were bad days of course, like when it rained or when a mission went a little too rough or when her knee just decided to cry out for no reason at all.

And then came a night, when the ache became really bad, due to a particularly rough outing to apprehend an alien who could, apparently, leap from floor to floor with her eight tentacles rather easily, and Alex _hated _stairs. Once she had gotten back, she did the unexpected and clocked out two hours before official working hours ended, trusting Vasquez to handle things.

Alex went home and took out the frozen peas from the fridge, along with two bottles of Corona. Then she sat in front of her TV and turned on Netflix, deciding now was a good as any to get started on Queer Eye. Two episodes in, there was a knock on her door, and she had to stifle the groan, only to feel the annoyance dissipate at the voice that flowed in.

"Alex?" Sam's voice called out uncertainly. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I –" She looked at her leg that was propped on the coffee table with the bag of frozen peas placed on top of her knee. She couldn't move if she wanted to. "Is there any way for you to get in yourself? I'm kind of…indisposed right now."

She tried to make it sound as less worrisome as possible, but judging by the hurried shuffle of feet and grumble outside the door, she failed. And then, five seconds later, she heard some noise from another direction. When she turned, she jumped a little at the sight of Sam climbing in her window with a bottle of red wine precariously dangling from her fingers and her hair tousled from the wind.

"Yeah, I almost forgot that Kara's not the only one who can do that," she mumbled.

Okay, _of course_, even after braving through the winds and the unnatural conditions of the outside, Samantha Arias still managed to look like the second most put together person on earth. The first being Lena Luthor, because Lena Luthor was not normal. Alex allowed herself a second to bemoan to the universe as to _why _it decided that surrounding her with three of the most unruffled women was a good idea – as if she wasn't _human _enough as it was.

"What the hell?" Sam's exclamation pulled Alex out of her thoughts. "What happened to your knee?"

"Oh, right." Alex smiled sheepishly with a sheepish shrug. "It's a long story."

She should have known that wouldn't deter Sam. So she spent the next fifteen minutes explaining to Sam about the incident years ago, talking about the surgery that didn't pan out that time, detailing how she had lied to pretty much everyone as she took a few days off and traveled to San Francisco just to get this surgery without anyone knowing.

"It's just a bad day today."

Sam stared at her for a moment, and then she placed the wine on the table and reached into her bag to procure a small tub of some sort of balm. "This will help," she muttered and unceremoniously removed the bag of peas, to Alex's protest.

Before the redhead could protest further, Sam had already started massaging Alex's knee with the balm, slowly, gently, but with enough pressure that Alex's protest died on her lips. She rested her head back against the couch and sighed a little too happily at actual relief of pain, instead of useless frozen peas that barely did a thing.

"This feels good."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Sam hummed. Queer Eye played into the background as they sat there. And then – _and then _Sam started singing _The One _by Kodaline softly, almost under her breath, but loud enough for Alex to hear. She opened her eyes a little and took the chance to steal a look at Sam, who seemed very attentive to Alex's bum knee and singing Kodaline. And Alex felt her skin tingling more and more.

She didn't know what it was. Maybe it was the deliriousness from Sam's touch or the noise emitting from the TV set or just that she was so exhausted from the day. She reached out and stopped Sam's hand. When Sam stopped singing and looked up with a perplexed expression, Alex leaned forward as best as she could without jostling her knee, then she captured Sam's lips with her own.

Sam made a surprised noise, but eventually, she leaned into the kiss as well. And Alex felt so…at home.

That was the first time. Following that night, it almost felt like Sam had developed a detector for bad days, because whenever Alex started retrieving the bag of frozen peas, Sam would show up with the balm. Then they would spend at least fifteen minutes in comfortable silence as Alex allowed herself this luxury.

But since then, there was not a day or night when they met, where they wouldn't end it with a kiss or two or ten, and silly smiles on their faces.

* * *

"Will you two stop?"

Sam glanced at Winn innocently. Winn, who was looking incredibly irritated and halfway to disgust. "What?"

"He's talking about that," Kara pointed out as she passed by, gesturing at Sam and Alex's clasped hands. Then she went on to join Lena in the kitchen.

At the reminder, Alex squeezed Sam's hand. And in return, Sam squeezed back harder. Alex, who didn't like to lose, returned the favor.

"I'm so done," Winn huffed and stood up, choosing to participate in J'onn and Lucy's conversation.

When Sam squeezed again, Alex had to laugh and lean in to place a chaste kiss on her lips. She hadn't said it yet, but she was certain that she absolutely love Sam to death.

* * *

Sam had four smiles: the smile that she had for other people, the smile that she had for her loved ones, the smile that she had for Ruby, and the smile she had for Alex. And Alex always felt more spoiled than ever whenever Sam flashed her _that _smile.

Alex was addicted to it.

And this addiction fueled her occasional deliberations in splitting up with Sam whenever they were out. For example, they could be strolling in the mall after having sent Ruby to a friend's place for a study group, and Alex would just imperceptibly let go and walk a little faster into the crowd so as to lose herself amongst the people; sooner and later, Sam would spot her and she would absolutely _beam_.

And honestly, the redhead would take a momentary loss of contact despite how much she didn't really like it, if she could be at the receiving end of that smile when Sam located her. She swore: that smile was to her what the sun was to Kara – it recharged her and gave her strength.

Of course, Alex would never tell Sam this. She wouldn't want to risk Sam stop doing it any time in the future. She didn't think there'd be a time she would tire of it, really.

* * *

Out of the two of them, Alex definitely held the more…unstable job when it came to the hours, what with no rest to crime and the annual world domination by aliens or humans alike. Honestly, sometimes Alex felt like they these criminals and villains got together once a year and jotted down shit on their calendar so there would be one big event for the most powerful villain of the year, like a villain convention.

Plus, after the split with and subsequent defeat of Reign, Sam had decided that the superhero life wasn't for her. She took a step back, wore the bracelets that Winn and Lena had designed for her, and went along with the life she had led before the whole mess with the rogue Kryptonians.

"I have a daughter. I had a…life – a good one – before everything that happened. I loved that life. And I just want to go back to it. I want to make sure my daughter won't have to worry about her mother because I'm off fighting some monster or another. I want to come home, free of bruises and only tired because of work and not of anything else."

None of them can judge the CFO for it. Unlike Kara, Sam had lived a large portion of her life thinking she was just a human citizen of earth and not anything else. It wasn't her fault that the rogue Kryptonians had decided to use her as a vessel to wreak havoc and tear the world apart. And now that she was free from the shackles, Sam, more than anyone, had the right to choose what she wanted to do with life.

That also meant that Alex was likelier of the two of them to be stuck at the DEO for a late night. And when she finally got the chance to escape, Sam would have already been in bed. And Alex's habit on these nights would be to change in the guestroom that used to be hers, being as quiet as possible despite Sam's sensitive ears, then she would slip into bed with Sam without waking the woman up.

Now, if only Sam could be as humane and nice as her the off chance that she was the one with the late night and Alex was the one who had to make sure Ruby obey the curfew.

Because, unlike Alex, when Sam came home finding that Alex was already fast asleep, she wouldn't be subtle or be so kind as to let the woman sleep. Oh no, the cruel woman had to deliberately crawl onto the bed and shake Alex gently until the redhead relented to the disturbance and woke up to find Sam smiling softly at her.

Usually, Alex would be delighted to see that smile. But she barely had a chance to sleep like a log as it was, so forgive her for being grumpy at the sight of such a lovely smile that only seemed to brighten up the dark room more, winning over even the moonlight.

Then Sam would lean down with puckered lips just to kiss Alex once, twice, thrice. After that, she would pat Alex's bum and whisper for her to go back to sleep. But not before she kissed her the fourth time.

One time, Alex couldn't bear it anymore, so as Sam slid out of bed to change for bedtime, she asked, "Why do you do that?" Tailing the question was a big yawn.

Sam had leant against the door, having already taken off her jacket and slacks, and replied, "I just love that you exist."

Alex had groaned and slumped back against the pillow. "You're such a sap."

But neither of them missed out on the fact that Alex no longer complained whenever Sam woke her up in the middle of the night to kiss her four times. Yeah, Alex loved that Sam existed too.

* * *

**just felt like writing some fluff nbd**


End file.
